Can someone tell me what goes on at a dermatology appointment? I've never been. I have a TON of freckles and moles and whatnot that have never ever been looked at, but now that I have a kid I want to see grow up and thrive, I'd rather get what I'm sure is most likely skin cancer removed from my body so I don't die from it.
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Well...it depends. You can do a "quick" full body exam. At mine they have you leave bra and undies on, gown up, and you kind of get..."glanced over." You can also do a "full..." full body exam. You strip down (to nothing), gown up, and beach yourself under a giant light. You're then basically inspected head to toe...literally. Your scalp, inbetween your toes, evvvverything is looked at.
I went in for my first one (which was a "quick" one) about a year ago and pointed out a mole on my shin I was worried about (I've been obsessively checking myself for years as I was a horrrrribly tanner back in the day). They performed a punch biopsy and it ended up being "as severely abnormal as it could be without actually being melanoma." I went back in a few weeks later and they performed a wide local excision (WLE) of the area and I am to go back every 6 months for a check-up.
I just went in a few weeks back for a "full" body exam and pointed out another mole, this one they shaved off (it was smaller) and again, it came back severely atypical, so again, I'm heading in for another WLE...
It's scary stuff but SO worth it. Definitely get an appointment set-up--they usually have ridiculous wait-times to get in. Melanoma is notttt something you wanna mess with!!!
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I've only been a few times, in high school, for mole/pre-cancer exams, since my mom had a melanoma and freaked out and made us go, ha. I had to strip down to bra/panties and put on a paper robe thing, and the doc carefully examined my whole body. He used a pen to circle the moles that concerned him, and then numbed those areas and sliced them off and sent them to be tested for cancerous cells. I wound up having three removed at my first appointment, and then two more at a follow-up a few months later. It really wasn't a big deal, and the most pain came from the numbing shot.
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@ms.janedoe: @MediaNaranja: Thanks! I have an appointment next week. I hope it is for the full scan.
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@highwire: One of the absolute BEST things I'd tell you to do is go over yourself before you get there. You're the one that knows your skin the best--if there's a few moles you've noticed have shown up recently that weren't there before, make a note of it, if you've noticed any changing shape/size/color, make a note of it. Check out some of the cliche ABCDEs of moles and see if any of yours look like that, I can almost guarantee the first thing they'll ask you is if you have any spots you're worried about!
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I second going over yourself/pointing out things to the doc. I had a few I was concerned about so I made sure he looked at them and I pointed one out that was on my scalp that he might not have seen otherwise.
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